Sociology professor Nancy Cook and David Butz from the Department of Geography recently received a Council for Research in Social Sciences (CRISS) grant to do a photography exhibit in Shimshal, a small mountain village in northern Pakistan. The duo are conducting research about road accessibility and social change there.

Photos in the exhibit were produced as part of an auto-photography project that involved giving villagers digital cameras and inviting them to take pictures that convey the importance of a recently-constructed jeep road for their daily lives, and discussing the photos with them.

The exhibit, which will be timed to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the road’s completion, will allow community members to see each other’s photos and will generate data in the form of comments and group discussion.

The printed photos will be stored permanently in a publicly-accessible community archive.

“The CRISS grant enables the continuation of an innovative and productive line of research, while also providing the community with an important visual record of social transformation,” Cook said.

Psychology professor Michael Ashton also received a CRISS award to assist him in publishing a book called “The H Factor of Personality: Why Some People Are Manipulative, Self-Entitled, Materialistic, and  Exploitive—And Why It Matters For Everyone.”

He’ll publish it with Kibeom Lee, a  colleague at the University of Calgary.

Ashton has done extensive  research in personality psychology, particularly a structural model that  he developed with Lee.

“The CRISS award will be a big help in publishing  this book, which will allow us to share our research findings with a  broader audience,” Lee said.

CRISS research awards are granted three times each year to researchers in the Faculty of Social Sciences.